Sun. June 17

“Noel Coward was a charmer/Velvet jacket and pajamas.” We always wanted to repeat that line written by the late great Ian Dury in his ode to geniuses of the world, “There Ain’t Half Been Some Clever Bastards.” (Dury being the cheeky sort he was – and clever as well – sang “lucky bleeders, lucky bleeders” after saluting the “clever bastards.”) Well, Noel Coward lives on at the Huntington Theatre in its production of “Present Laughter.” It closes today, Sunday June 17. The Huntington’s outgoing director Nicholas Martin (a clever bastard himself) calls it a “cast-iron script” and that’s a good way to put it.  Coward was such a wordsmith and this play, set in 1930s London, is considered one of his funniest and most autobiographical. At the center, is the rather vain, egotistical, but for from unlikable cad of an actor Garry Essendine, played by Victor Garber, (in photo) probably best known from the TV show “Alias,” but also an ill-fated engineer in James Cameron’s “Titanic.” Here he gets to put on an English accent and strut his stuff as a 50-something actor, not quite divorced – but definitely separated – from his wife Liz (Lisa Banes). Garry’s got an eye for young ladies, and not everyone approves of that trait. Nor does everyone approve of his choices. His friends think he’s always “acting,” and he might believe that himself. “You’re in love with an illusion,” he tells Daphne Stillington, whom he spends the night with early in the play. This is after she’s told him how wonderfully happy she is and he’s responded, “There’s something sad about happiness.”  Later, Garry is accused of being not human at all but made of paper mache. And, he, hilariously, stops to groom his hair in the mirror virtually every time he answers the door, which is often.
The entire three-act play – nearly three hours with two intermissions – takes place in his living room, and Garry encounters a would-be playwright, a manager, a producer, a maid, a butler, the wife, the mistress and the other mistress. Remember, Coward wrote this, so everyone here is fabulously witty. We only wish we spoke so well. Roland Maule (Brooks Ashmansakas), the flamboyant artistically inclined playwright who barges into Garry’s world declares, “The theater of the future is the theater of ideas … All you do is prostitute yourself every night of your life” in commercial theater. Garry ponders what this might mean after he passes on and decides, “Why should I wonder what people think of me when I’m as dead as a doornail?” (Can’t fault that reasoning, really.) Later, when the secretary Monica Reed (Sarah Hudnut, also in photo) upbraids him, he retorts, “You go through life like some frightened little warship.” When she turns her back and walks away he notes her propeller is showing.
When all the romantic subterfuge and entanglements are getting sorted out at the end – it seems everyone has a few secrets – Garry bursts out with “You all behave as badly as I do!” Garry, you see, is just more up-front about it all. “Present Laugher” is something of a long and wordy haul, but it’s really quite delightful. It’s a fond glimpse into another era, one where the damned telephone rang all the time, but at least there were no cell phones. The play is up Tues-Sun. Most weeknight shows are at 7:30, with Friday and Saturday shows at 8. There are Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2. Check the website below for details. Tickets: $75-$45.

264 Huntintgon Ave., 617-266-0800 huntingtontheatre.org